Organ trade shock
GAUTENG Two Benoni school teachers, aged 44 and 46, have been arrested for allegedly possessing and distributing child pornography and printing them out at Brentwood Primary School, where they worked. They were bailed to appear at Benoni Magistrates’ Court on December 15.
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Under fire: Netcare
receive health insurance reimbursements of US$70,00080,000 for life-saving medical procedures performed abroad. At the Durban regional court, Netcare KwaZulu pleaded guilty to 102 counts relating to illegal operations between June 2001 and November 2003. It was fined R20,000 for contravening
the Human Tissues Act by allowing minors to donate kidneys. It received a further R4m fine for receiving money and participating in an illegal kidney transplant scheme and will also have to pay R3.8m to SA’s asset forfeiture unit. Netcare, which also operates in Britain, admitted its “criminal activities”.
Getty Images/ Robert Tshahalala
Justice system labelled “racist” Sotyu referred to a report published by the Centre For The Study Of Violence And Reconciliation, which found that South Africa is one of the five most violent countries in the world. However, it was criticised by MPs for providing no new insight into the country’s violent subculture. ANC MP Sindi Chikunga referred to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has made a turnaround after years of warfare. “There are heaps of weapons in the DRC, and Kinshasa is dirt poor, yet their crime isn’t nearly as violent as ours,” she said.
MPUMALANGA Bones believed to belong to those abducted and killed during the 1986 anti-independence unrest in the former KwaNdebele homeland have been found in a cave in Mdala Nature Reserve. The victims were prisoners taken by pro-independence vigilante group Imbokodo.
EASTERN CAPE Eight nurses from Mthatha’s Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital have been arrested for allegedly stealing medicine worth R200,000. The arrests vindicated the hospital which, despite substantial spending, regularly received complaints about being out of stock.
LIMPOPO
The racism issue has reared its ugly head again
A man who was facing rhinopoaching charges shot himself dead on a Musina farm. Tom Fourie, 51, was arrested a month ago after being accused of selling 36 rhino horns to Jan Karel Pieter Els, 37.
tntmagazine.com
NEWS & SPORT
■ Major private hospital group involved in R3.8m global organ-trafficking syndicate ■ Poor Brazilians and Romanians sold kidneys to wealthy Israelis ■ Netcare pleads guilty to 102 counts, including allowing minors to donate
A new deputy police minister has described South Africa’s criminal justice system as “racist”. Maggie Sotyu called for the to be transformed, claiming black criminals are given harsher sentences than their white counterparts. “A white person or boer who drags a black farm-worker behind his bakkie and gets off with a R10,000 fine,” she said. “But a black man who murders a white farmer gets life in prison. “That’s racist politics and it’s about time our courts realise this is the new South Africa.”
COAST TO COAST What’s happening across the country
SUMMARY
outh Africa’s largest private hospital group, Netcare, has admitted receiving R3.8m from an illegal organ-trafficking syndicate. At least 30 Brazilians and Romanians – including five children – recruited from impoverished neighbourhoods, sold their kidneys for as little as US$3000. They were transported to one of South Africa’s top hospitals, St Augustine’s in Durban, where the recipients were mostly Israelis who
SOUTH AFRICA
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